Kyle Lafata, PhD, is the contact principal investigator on a recently awarded $3.13 million, five-year R01 grant by the NIH/NIDCR titled "From bench to bedside: a multifaceted integrated approach to improve head and neck cancer outcomes."
The project is in partnership with MPI Tammara Watts, MD, PhD(Novant Health), and tackles critical gaps in understanding biology and treatment response in oropharyngeal cancer. It uses next-generation digital spatial profiling, advanced computational science and applied mathematics to analyze immune cell topologies within tumors, helping to map complex interactions between tumor cells and immune cells driven by transcriptomic perturbations.
"By interrogating tissue-specific data and mathematically modeling immune dysregulation as a dynamical system, we seek to understand the role of the immune microenvironment in tumor progression, therapy resistance and immune evasion," said Dr. Lafata. "We think that spatiotemporal patterns and topological characteristics of immune cells may be linked to mechanisms of resistance, such as immune exclusion mediated by cancer-associated fibroblasts."
Additionally, in collaboration with the Duke Cancer Institute, the grant establishes a dedicated pilot funding program to support the career development of trainees, post-docs and early-career faculty pursing head and neck oncology research.